EC should start campaigning for BJP: Mamata

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday (March 17, 2026) tore into the Election Commission of India for transferring top bureaucrats in the State and said the poll body should “start campaigning for the BJP”.

The Chief Minister said the party will contest 291 seats in the West Bengal polls and will win more than 226 seats.

Hours after the announcement of Assembly election in West Bengal, the Election Commission late on Sunday transferred the Chief Secretary, Home Secretary, and the Director-General of Police, among others.

Ms. Banerjee said all the transfers were done at “the behest of the BJP”.

“EC is playing a game on behalf of the BJP. It should now start campaigning for the party,” the Chief Minister said at a press conference where she announced the party’s candidates for the Assembly elections.

Ms. Banerjee alleged that the transfers were done to “distribute cash” ahead of the elections and “trigger riots”. “Why was there so much hurry,” she asked. “The BJP wants to gobble up Bengal. They have become greedy,” she said.

The Chief Minister said the upcoming election was a “fight for survival” for Bengal. “And Bengal will win in this fight. The Modi government is anti-farmer and anti-women. They have insulted the people and polity of Bengal, and I urge the public to teach them a lesson,” she said.

Likening the BJP to migratory birds, Ms. Banerjee said that the saffron party knows only to attack with guns and distribute cash. Slamming the Centre for the LPG crisis in the wake of the West Asia conflict, Ms. Banerjee said, “They don’t have LPG gas but have cash.”

Just after the transfers, Ms. Banerjee had said, “Change everything but you will not be able to change the government in the State.”